Reader's Insight
by lovingcompulsion
Summary: Short segments from three new stories I have started. Please read through them and let me know which one you are most excited for.


**A/N: **Here are a few stories I am working on. I was hoping that some of you could look these over and send me some feedback on which you are most excited for. I will probably be working on them at the same time, but I want to know which one my main focus should be on. Plus, I could always use a bit of encouragement to keep myself writing. Knowing whether or not there are people who actually want to read these would help a ton.

PLUS!: I am in need of a beta. So if anyone is willing to offer, that would be fantastic. Just not that none of these previews have been beta'd and they are VERY rough drafts.

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><p><strong>Awareness of Life<strong>

_Summary: __After a suicide attempt, Elena winds up in psychiatric facility where she learns that she was more successful than she originally thought. With not long to live Elena integrates herself among people that begin to make her feel alive for the first time in almost forever. One of them in particular being a man who has delusions of being a vampire. Based on the movie Veronika Decides to Die, but a bunch of the story is changed as we enter future chapters._

_Genre: __Angst/Romance AU/AH_

_Rating: __M_

_Pairing/Characters: (__Main) Damon/Elena, Elijah, Alaric, Caroline (Minor) Katherine/Elijah, Caroline/Matt, Jeremy/Anna_

_**PREVIEW**_

_Beep…. Beep….beep…._

It was the high beeps of an obnoxious heart monitor that finally roused her from her state of unconsciousness. Feeling like a heavy bag of bones Elena tried to move but weakly shook when she lifted her right hand until flopped back down onto the bed. Carefully she opened her eyes to face whatever dimension had her so frail and disoriented, but what she saw she wasn't expecting. Instead of heavenly white lights and a magnificent golden gate her eyes met a simple turquoise colored room with cream curtains and two people sitting in chairs near the end of her bed.

Looking at the tubes and wires attached to her arms, her heart sunk as she slowly came to a disappointing realization. She was alive. She would have rather woken up to find a bustling fire welcoming her to eternal damnation then to find that she failed in killing herself. But there it was. That _beep… beep….beep…_ showing the beats of her heart, mocking her unsuccessful attempt at what should have been a simple task.

Elena looked back to the people in her room that she hadn't recognized. The man to her right sat properly in his chair with his hands folded together against one of the armrests. He returned her stare with a look of concern. Elena then focused on the woman to her left. The file folder on her lap held her attention until she felt Elena's eyes on her, causing her to look up.

"Elena, you're awake." She said in a calm, yet surprised, voice. "My name is Dr. Carol Lockwood, and this is Dr. Elijah Smith." She pointed to herself and to the man on the opposite her.

"What's going on?" Her voice cracked.

"You were in a coma and in intensive care for two weeks before being well enough to be with us here."

Elena tried to get herself situated into a sitting position. "Where is 'here'?"

"Villette" Dr. Lockwood said as if Elena was supposed to know what that was.

"Villette?"

" A privately funded psychiatric facility just outside of Atlanta. Our Director, Dr. Smith, has taken special interest in your case."

Elena sighed deeply and shook her head. This is the last thing she ever wanted to have happen. "You're shrinks. Why am I here? Who put me here?"

"Your brother approved it. Elena, can I ask you a few questions?" Dr. Lockwood stood and brought herself closer to Elena's side. "What is your date of birth?"

"August 1st, 2000….." She stumbled on her words. 2000? That wasn't right. Dates scrambled in her head as she looked for the correct answer. She couldn't understand why she didn't know this instantly. "1993" Elena said finally.

It didn't seem to faze the doctor that she couldn't come up with her own birth date. She just made a note on her file and continued on with the questions. "Your address?"

Elena froze again. What was wrong with her? Luckily she wasn't pushed to think about this question when Dr. Lockwood moved on to the next one.

"Your place of employment?"

"The Mystic Grille." She answered surprisingly easily.

"Your position?"

" Waitress. It was only supposed to be temporary." She didn't know why she added that last part. It wasn't like she cared what this woman thought of her, or even the fact that she was a waitress to begin with. Part of her just felt like it had to be said.

" The color of your mother's hair?"

Elena didn't even think about it she just answered. "I don't remember." _I don't want to remember._

"Close your eyes." She instructed and Elena obeyed. "The color of my hair?"

"Red."

"Are you sure?"

She opened her eyes and saw that she was wrong. Her hair was a light brown, maybe a dark dishwater blonde. She rolled her eyes in frustration. What was with all these questions? Why was she expected answer all of them when she was so tired and loopy? Didn't they understand that she didn't want to be doing this? "Look, how long do I have to stay here?"

Dr. Lockwood bit her bottom lip and turned her eyes to meet Dr. Smith's, and then back to hers again. "Unfortunately, we have some difficult news, in that regard."

" Somebody want to tell me what's going on here?" Elena looked back and forth between the doctors until Dr. Lockwood handed her a sheet of paper from the file folder.

" That's yours." She heard Dr. Smith speak for the first time.

"Oh?" She tried to read what was in front of her, but she couldn't make any sense of it. From what she could tell, it must have been her medical chart.

"Elena, when you took the overdose, your heart stopped and you suffered a heart attack, which caused a ventricular aneurysm." Dr. Lockwood began to explain. "In layman's terms, you damaged the mechanism that pumps blood into the heart, which has caused irreversible damage to it. Your heart attack produced a scar, which in time became an aneurysm. I'm afraid the aneurysm is so large, it's… inoperable. It will get bigger and bigger every day, until it finally ruptures."

Elena's breath caught in her throat as she pieced together what the doctor was saying. "So I am gonna die after all?"

"I'm afraid so."

She felt her chest tighten upon hearing her conclusions be confirmed. "Well, how long do I have? A year? Years?"

"Exact estimates are impossible. Not years."

"Okay. So six months, five months, four months?" She counted down the number of months, needing to know exactly how much time she was being forced to suffer through.

"It could be any time, um…. It might be only a matter of weeks. A month at most."

Great. This was just great. She was expected to sit around for a month, never knowing when the moment was gonna finally come for her to die? "I have to wait that long? If I succeeded why don't you just kill me now?"

"This might be a lot to take in." Dr. Lockwood offered a comforting hand on her shoulder, but Elena just shook it off. In response, Dr. Lockwood stood up and turned to Dr. Smith.

"Yes, I think we've said enough for now." Dr. Smith stood up as well so the two of them could exit her room together. Before he made it out he turned to Elena and said. "We think this is the best place for you. We will be giving you regular shots for heart which might make you tired, but we will do everything we can to make your last days here as pleasant as possible."

"Does my brother know?" Elena quickly asked regarding her diagnosis.

"No, not yet."

"You can't tell him." She said firmly. Dr. Smith simply nodded.

"I think we have said enough for now." He repeated his words from moments before and the two doctors left her alone.

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><p><strong>Road Not Yet Take <strong>(Title could change)

_Summary: __POST KLAUS= __It's Elena's last summer in Mystic Falls before she leaves for college and Damon uses this an opportunity to take her on a road trip that, for the first time, has nothing to do with fact finding, hybrid hunting, or Stefan saving missions. Meanwhile, as she watches her friends plan for their future, Caroline comes to terms with the life she won't be living as a human and Stefan adjusts to, once again, being alone in the Boarding House. They begin to learn that their time is best spent together. But no one knows the trouble that lies ahead._

_Genre: __Romance/Adventure_

_Rating: __T-M(?)_

_Pairing/Characters: (__Main) Damon/Elena, Caroline/Stefan (Minor) Jeremy/Bonnie mentions of Stefan/Elena and Caroline/Tyler. (there will probably be more, just haven't made all the decisions yet)_

_**PREVIEW**_

Elena had her hair tied back in a bun, keeping the ends from dipping into the sudsy water that engulfed her naked, and ridiculously sore, body. She leaned back and submerged herself deeper below the water line to let the warmth of the bath work its magic on her muscles, causing her to let out a relaxed sigh. This had certainly been a hard year for her. For everyone, really. But it seemed like she was taking so long to get back to normal after everything with Klaus had reached its conclusion. Always worried that some other life or death situation would arise, she slept with one eye open and wooden stake tactically hidden underneath her bed. It wasn't until just recently that she started to allow herself to take a little breather and not be so hung up on fearing for the worst. Summer had finally arrived and after making it through graduation and an almost-apocalypse Elena had to give herself a chance to just _be_, for a while.

With her eyes closed and settling into the calm of the night, she sunk he head lower and began to drift in a state of unconsciousness until a hand gently shook her shoulder. Her eyes popped open and she resituated herself to make it seem like she wasn't in fact falling asleep. She looked up to see Damon standing over her. "I guess I can't trust you to take a bath on your own anymore." He meant it as more of a jibe but she could detect the subtle seriousness to his voice.

"No, Damon. I'm fine. I was just closing my eyes for a minute" She rubbed her eyes, making the attempt to wake herself up, but it just made her look so much less convincing.

"With half your face under the water? I don't think so." He said as leaned over and wiped off the suds from her cheek, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Elena mirrored the curve of his lips with a small smile of her own. "Fine, I might have dozed off for a moment. Where did you go anyway? I expected you to follow me in here, but you disappeared."

"I forgot this." Damon grabbed the bottle that was sitting next to two glasses on the bathroom counter and began uncorking the top.

"Wine?"

Damon stopped what he was doing and stared at Elena with a mock-glare. "Elena, I am surprised at you. I am an old-fashioned family-friendly man. You really think that I would condone underage drinking?"

In response Elena scoops up a handful of bubbles floating on the surface of the water and flings it at him. "Uh huh. Sure, Damon. You're a real role model." She giggles and reaches her hand up so he would give her one of the wine glasses. He obliges and pours a generous amount of red wine in her glass before turning to fill his own. "Thank you. Now you should come in here with me."

He didn't need to be asked twice. Damon hastily lifted his shirt up over his head and tossed it to the side, only to do the same with his pants and boxers. Elena let her eyes wonder over his nude body as he walked closer to the tub. "Scoot up." He made a waving gesture with his had so she would move forward a little so he could sit behind her. When she complied, Damon grabbed his wine glass and then slowly lowered himself into the tub and leaned back with Elena comfortably settled against his chest.

"Mmmmm" Elena moaned softly when he wrapped one arm around her and placed a kiss on her bare neck. "We really needed this." Damon's hand moved from the curve of her waist and moved to lower regions of her body, causing Elena to throw her head back against his shoulder. "Damon, you are going to make me spill the wine" she said after letting out a very noticeably shutter.

"Then you better drink up." He teased and playfully nipped the skin at her neck with fangless teeth.

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><p><strong>Things I Almost Remember<strong>

_Summary: __Based off Anastasia. Elena is a young woman with no memory of her past. Damon, Stefan, and Alaric are a group of con men who come up with the perfect plan to receive a huge amount of reward money for returning the lost princess of Bulgaria. When they find Elena, who looks suspiciously like Princess Katerina Petrova, they convince her to go with them to Paris by telling her that's where she can find her long lost family._

_Genre: __Romance/Action/Adventure_

_Rating: __T_

_Pairing/Characters: (__Main) Damon/Elena, onesided Stefan/Elena, Alaric (minor) Stefan/Caroline, Jenna/Alaric, Jeremy_

_**PREVIEW**_

Stefan could feel the strain in his feet as he held himself up on his tip toes, unwilling to return to a normal stance as he watched out a small kitchen window he could barely reach. He watched a girl no older than himself hug a small boy close to her as they spun around the dance floor, carefully making sure not to bump into any of the older guests. Stefan basked in her remarkable beauty. Her long dark hair swung swiftly as she danced, her chocolate eyes were wide and full of joyous expression, and her smile took his breath away every time she unknowingly pointed it in his direction. Her look of unabashed happiness made his heart warm and his knees weak. He didn't know how long he had gotten lost in the sight of this girl, but a sudden crash with the accompaniment of a man yelling tore Stefan's attention from the window and toward the commotion.

"You rotten little thief!" One of the chefs grew red with anger as he chased around a kid with a mop of black hair covering his eyes. The boy bobbed and weaved between different counter spaces and even hid behind a few other chefs, but he eventually got caught and was pulled by the collar of his shirt. "I am warning you, Damon. The next time you put your thieving little hands on my food, I will make sure you and your brother are thrown out of this palace and on to the streets. You hear me?"

Damon looked back at him, unapologetic and without fear. Stefan could have sworn he saw a hint of a smile. "I hear you."

The chef let him go and roughly shoved him to the side before turning to go back to his work. Damon recovered easily, and as soon as no one but Stefan was looking, he pulled out a piece of bread and stuffed half of it in his mouth.

"Damon, you shouldn't have done that!" Stefan protested as his elder brother triumphantly strode over to his side.

"What? I was hungry and they made more than enough food. They would have given us the leftovers anyway and I figured I would get it while it's still warm. I brought some for you too." He dug into his apron pocket for the second piece of bread and handed it to Stefan who accepted it with immense gratitude.

"Thank you." Stefan said, his mood already turning around. He took a large bite and looked up at Damon with a smile on his face. It was so rare that they ever got food that wasn't cold and stale and Stefan was really grateful that his brother thought to get him some too. However, it hadn't really surprised him. Damon was always doing little things to take care of him without putting much thought into it.

And just like always, Damon completely brushed it off. "Just eat the rest of it before someone sees you." He said before stuffing the rest of his own in his mouth.

Stefan did as he was told and quickly ate the rest of his food. When it looked like Damon was going to leave again, Stefan turned to go back to his spot in front of the window. Damon saw this, and instead of exiting the kitchen, he stood next to his brother at the window and looked out toward the party.

Damon followed the direction of Stefan's eyes and caught sight of the young princess, twirling around with joy. The corner of his mouth quirked upward, but quickly disappeared. "Your eyes fixated on Miss Katerina again?" He asked.

Stefan stepped back from the window and grew a bit flustered. "She's so pretty." He admitted softly, worried that he would be laughed at. Damon only smirked.

"Listen here, little brother." He clapped a hand down on Stefan's shoulder and got the younger boy to look up at him. "Princess' don't marry kitchen boys. You'd do best to remember that." Stefan's expression sunk and his shoulders sagged, his heart aching upon hearing the awful truth. It wasn't the first time Damon reminded him of this, but it was always difficult to hear. Damon nodded his head to the side as he pulled his brother along. "Come on, let's duck out of here before we get ordered to do more dishes."


End file.
